Relationship in SIR Form Flummoxes Voters

The Election Commission’s special intensive revision (SIR) of the electoral roll has raised concerns among people for various reasons. 

What has become a major cause for concern is a single field in the enumeration form (EF), which denotes the relationship between the voter and his or her relative. 

According to sources, the relationship field has created considerable confusion not only among electors, but amongst volunteers, and even booth level officers tasked with guiding voters to fill the form, and could potentially affect genuine electors during the verification process.

They appear to be confused about whose



relationship they need to fill in the ‘relationship’ field. If the relationship sought to be known is the relative’s relation with the elector, it could be father, mother, brother, sister or any blood relative. 

If the relationship sought is the voter’s relation with the relative, it could be son, daughter, or any other blood relation. Since the relationship field is not descriptive, the volunteers said people could get confused and fill in the wrong detail, which could lead to inconsistent data entry, verification delays, and avoidable disputes during scrutiny. 

Such procedural deficiencies place an unnecessary burden on electors as well as election officials.